A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1944Quotes
I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.
—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.
—Francis Bacon, 1625Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
—Lord Acton, 1887Politics is the art of the possible.
—Otto von Bismarck, 1867On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1787A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.
—Martin Luther King Jr., c. 1967There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.
—Anthony Trollope, 1862Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.
—Laozi, c. 500 BCPolitics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
—Paul Valéry, 1943Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.
—Alexander Hamilton, 1787No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.
—Hannah Arendt, 1958